Ross Poldark: Poldark, Book 1

Tired from a grim war in America, Ross Poldark returns to his land and his family. But the joyful homecoming he has anticipated turns sour, for his father is dead, his estate is derelict, and the girl he loves is engaged to his cousin. But his sympathy for the destitute miners and farmers of the district leads him to rescue a half-starved urchin girl from a fairground brawl and take her home - an act which alters the whole course of his life....

Paul Temple: The Complete Radio Collection: Volume Two: The Fifties

When it comes to classic crime partnerships, Paul Temple (Peter Coke) and his wife, Steve (Marjorie Westbury), are the crème de la crème. Between 1938 and 1968, their glamorous exploits enthralled generations of radio listeners around the world. Here, presented in chronological order, are some of the amateur detective's adventures from the 1950s.

The Daughter of Time

'Truth is the Daughter of Time' is an old proverb. And The Daughter of Time is Josephine Tey's search for the truth about the murder of the Princes in the Tower. Was the hunchback, Richard III, the monster that Shakespeare and the history books have made him out to be?

The Mangle Street Murders

Gower Street, London, 1882: Sidney Grice, London's most famous personal detective, is expecting a visitor. He drains his fifth pot of morning tea, and glances outside, where a young, plain woman picks her way between the piles of horse-dung towards his front door. Sidney Grice shudders. For heaven's sake - she is wearing brown shoes. The Mangle Street Murders is for those who like their crime original, atmospheric, and very, very funny.

The Ides of April: Falco: The New Generation (Flavia Albia, Book 1)

Falco: the new generation - Introducing Flavia Albia.Flavia Albia is the adopted daughter of a famous investigating family. In defiance of tradition, she lives alone on the colourful Aventine Hill, and battles out a solo career in a male-dominated world. As a woman and an outsider, Albia has special insight into the best, and worst, of life in ancient Rome.A female client dies in mysterious circumstances. Albia investigates and discovers there have been many other strange deaths all over the city, yet she is warned off by the authorities.

Village School

Fairacre is a village of cottages, a church and the school - and, at the heart of the school, its head mistress Miss Read. Through her discerning eye, we meet the villagers of Fairacre and see their trials and tribulations, from the irascible school cleaner Mrs Pringle, to the young school children, with their scraped knees, hopeful faces and inevitable mischief.

North and South

Set in the context of Victorian social and medical debate, this novel is about rebellion, posing fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. This revised edition draws on recent theoretical work on gender and class.

Monarchy

The crown of England is the oldest surviving political institution in Europe. Throughout this audiobook Dr David Starkey emphasises the Crown's endless capacity to adapt to circumstances and reshape national policy, whilst he unmasks the personalities and achievements, the defeats and victories, which lie behind the kings and queens of British history. Each of these monarchs has contributed to the religion, geography, laws, language, and government which we live with today.

Heresy

Oxford, 1583. Giordano Bruno, a radical thinker fleeing the Inquisition, is sent undercover to Oxford to expose a Catholic conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth. But he has his own secret mission at the University, which must remain hidden at all costs. When a series of hideous murders are committed, Bruno is compelled to investigate. What he finds makes it brutally clear that the Tudor throne itself is at stake....

Three Sisters, Three Queens

When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure. With one look each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined - with Margaret's younger sister, Mary - to a sisterhood unique in all the world. The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland, and France.

Watch the Lady

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audio edition of Watch the Lady by Elizabeth Freemantle, read by Georgina Sutton and Roy McMillan. Penelope Devereux is a legendary beauty in the court of Elizabeth, but it's not just her looks which mark her apart. With her canny instinct for being in the right place at the right time and her skilled political manipulation, she has become a formidable adversary to anyone who stands in her path.

Wolf Hall

Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

Swallows and Amazons: Swallows and Amazons Series, Book 1

For anyone who loves sailing and adventure, Arthur Ransome's classic Swallows and Amazons series stands alone. Originally published over a half-century ago, the twelve books are still eagerly read by children and adults alike - by all those captivated by the world of adventure and imagination. Such longevity is not only due to Ransome's unparalleled gift of storytelling, but also his championing of qualities such as independence and initiative; virtues that appeal to every generation, whether young or old.

The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection: Six BBC Radio Full-Cast Dramatisations

A collection of BBC radio full-cast dramatisations of Jane Austen's six major novels. Jane Austen is one of the finest writers in the English language, and this volume includes all six of her classic novels. Mansfield Park: on a quest to find a position in society, Fanny Price goes to live with her rich aunt and uncle. Northanger Abbey: young, naïve Catherine Morland receives an invitation to stay at the isolated Gothic mansion Northanger Abbey.

Wars of the Roses: Stormbird

The thrilling first instalment in the Wars of the Roses series - set at the beginnings of this turbulent period of English history which saw the throne change hands six times in 30 years. The Swan sees Henry VI crowned King of England, and married to the young French noblewoman, Margaret of Anjou - and so begins the extraordinary story of how England became a divided nation, where brother took up arms against brother. This was the war which defined the England we know today.

Wuthering Heights

The passionate and tragic story of Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff is one of the high points of nineteenth-century Romantic literature. In the relationship of Cathy and Heathcliff, and in the wild, bleak Yorkshire Moors of its setting, Wuthering Heights creates a world of its own, conceived with a disregard for convention and an instinct for poetry and the darkest depths of the human soul in torment.

Middlemarch

Dorothea Brooke is an ardent idealist who represses her vivacity and intelligence for the cold, theological pedant Casaubon. One man understands her true nature: the artist Will Ladislaw. But how can love triumph against her sense of duty and Casaubon's mean spirit? Meanwhile, in the little world of Middlemarch, the broader world is mirrored: the world of politics, social change, and reforms, as well as betrayal, greed, blackmail, ambition, and disappointment.

Midnight for Charlie Bone: Children of the Red King #1

The first installment of the international best-selling series from Jenny Nimmo starring Charlie Bone. Since his father died, Charlie Bone has lived with his mother and her mother in the house of his other grandmother, Grandma Bone. Looking at a picture of a couple with a baby and a cat, he suddenly discovers he can hear their voices. Although he tries to hide his new gift, Grandma Bone and her scary sisters soon find out and send him to Bloor's Academy.

Publisher's Summary

When Penelope goes to stay with her aunt and uncle in an ancient Derbyshire farmhouse, she is immediately drawn to the wonderful atmosphere and longs to discover all its secrets. Soon she finds herself slipping back in time to the sixteenth century, where she is welcomed by the Babbington family, whose home it was then.

As the lines between past and present blur, Penelope becomes caught up in the tragic events that befall her new friends as they make plans to rescue the doomed monarch, Mary, Queen of Scots.